The present disclosure relates generally to failure mode effects analysis and, more particularly, to techniques for capturing and reporting information for a failure mode effects analysis.
A failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) is used in various industries as a method to facilitate the capture of areas of concerns for a system and applying risk assessment. An FMEA typically examines potential failure modes and potential causes of an overall system, subsystems and/or components. Risk assessment is applied to each failure mode by means of rating its severity, likelihood of occurrence and ability for detection. Doing such allows operators to prioritize risks and activities, and to make necessary or appropriate design modifications at the system or component level to improve overall system performance and reduce risk of failure.
Conventional FMEA techniques generally require users to enter data into different columns of an FMEA spreadsheet (in paper form or electronically) or other text-based hierarchy format. In all these cases, the FMEA process of capturing risk information into standardized worksheet formats requires participants to follow the procedure of filling in predefined fields. Although effective facilitators can improve the flow of gathering information from participants to entry into the FMEA spreadsheet, the current methods available remains largely text based and often requires participants to tune into the FMEA discipline mode. The text-busy and structured nature of the conventional FMEA continue to be a challenge for all facilitators to engage participants for effective results and require extensive time, and thus cost, to a company.